How Pine Stareye Got His Name

StormyLightning · Posted on yesterday 23:05

This story I made up does not match Pine's own version of how the name came about.  But I wrote it as a thank you for Pine drawing my fairy way back around Valentine's Day.

How Pine Stareye Got His Name
By Stormy Lightningberry

As evening fell, a new arrival to Pixie Hollow wanted to join the Star Counting Talents on their trip to see a new constellation from the top of Sheercliff Mountain. The others hadn’t said much to him, and he wanted to make a good impression, so he put on his best green plaid shirt, then slung a satchel with necessities across one shoulder.

As he headed out, he spotted a swarm of Never Butterflies heading in the opposite direction. “That’s ominous,” thought he, “I’ve heard that they are full of mischief.” But he didn’t want to be late, so there was no time to investigate.

He also saw a thick fog rolling in, close to the ground.

He arrived at the bottom of the cliff near a small stand of evergreen trees, and joined in with the other Star Counting Talents. He was about to shyly greet them when water dumped on all of the fairies, soaking their wings to uselessness. Looking up they saw that Never butterflies had dropped water on them all. Those thoughtless scamps! They’d been hidden by the unexpected fog!

He opened his satchel and saw that the contents were still dry. He took out a bagel and ate it.  The other fairies were complaining amongst themselves about the mistreatment by the butterflies.  They also worried that the fog would spoil their view of the new constellation.

Seeing that, the plaid clad fairy lad had an idea and walked over to the pine trees nearby. He found some pine sap and yanked at it. He got two big gobs on his hands, but the effort of pulling it off had caused a tiny speck to get in one eye.  He couldn’t use his fingers to get it out, so he just put up with it and continued his plan.

He went to the sheer cliff wall, slapped a sticky palm full of sap to the cliff and pulled himself up, then again with the other hand, slowly climbing up the cliff wall.

Eventually he couldn’t see the group of Star Counting Talents below because of the fog. A little later, and he climbed above the fog. Soon he reached the top of the cliff and looked around and spotted the new constellation. He wiped his hands clean on the grass, opened his satchel, got out a large leaf, little pots of pigment and a brush and painted the view of the constellation so that the fairies below could enjoy counting the stars in it, too.

The constellation was dipping behind a mountain as he finished, and another Star counting talent, Euclid Nightburst, came up over the edge of the cliff.

Euclid said, “Oh fiddlesticks! I followed your example but I missed seeing the whole constellation. I won’t be able to count how many stars are in it.”

The plaid wearer said that he’d drawn it just for that reason and showed him the leaf painting.  Presently, the other Star Counting Talents also climbed up and he showed them all the leaf painting.

Euclid said, “Hey, look at his eye!  It looks like a gleam of starlight got stuck in there and can’t get back out!” The other fairies agreed and they all admired the starry twinkle in his eye, which had gotten stuck to his eye from the sap and from him staring at the constellation.

All the fairies put their (cleaned) hands on his back and warmly said, “Your name is now Pine Stareye in honor of your brave sticky climbing, and your great contribution to the Star Counting Talents!”

Pine felt like he truly belonged, a feeling he’d been wanting this whole time, and his huge smile showed it.

The End